2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/214069Several new mechanisms have been hypothesized in the recent years to characterize the thermal conduction behavior in nanofluids. In this paper, we show that a large set of nanofluid thermal conductivity data is enveloped by the well-known Hashin and Shtrikman (HS) mean-field bounds for inhomogeneous systems. The thermal conductivity in nanofluids, therefore, is largely dependent on whether the nanoparticles stays dispersed in the base fluid, form linear chain-like configurations, or assume an intermediate configuration. The experimental data, which is strikingly analogous to those in most solid composites and liquid mixtures, provides a strong evidence for the classical nature of thermal conduction in nanofluids.24 pages. Submitted to Journal of Heat TransferSoft Condensed Mattertext